NEWS

Keep up to date with York Hospital news & events! We will upload new stories, releases, and events here on an ongoing basis.

York Hospital recognized by American Heart Association for Stroke and Heart Failure Treatment

York Hospital has earned Double Achievement Awards from the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines® Programs by receiving the Stroke Gold Quality Achievement Award and the Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. These awards recognize York Hospital’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care by ensuring that both stroke and heart failure patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted guidelines. “York Hospital is dedicated to making our care for stroke and heart failure patients among the best in the country. The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines programs help us to accomplish this goal,” said Jud Knox, Hospital President. “Quality medical care is paramount for our community. We are proud of our teams for being recognized for providing excellent care.” Get With The Guidelines–Stroke and Heart Failure programs help York Hospital’s staff develop and implement acute and secondary prevention guideline processes to improve patient care and outcomes. The program provides hospitals with web-based patient management tools, best practice discharge protocols and standing orders, along with a robust registry and real-time benchmarking capabilities to track performance. The quick and efficient use of guideline procedures can improve the quality of care for stroke and heart failure patients and may reduce disability and save lives. “Recent studies show that patients treated in hospitals participating in the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-Stroke and Heart Failure programs receive a higher quality of care and may experience better outcomes,” said Lee H. Schwamm, M.D., chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass. "York Hospital's team is to be commended for their commitment to improving the care of their patients.” Following Get With The Guidelines-Stroke treatment guidelines, patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies including the use of medications such as tPA, antithrombotics and anticoagulation therapy, along with cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation counseling. These are all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients. Following Get With The Guidelines–Heart Failure treatment guidelines, heart failure patients are started on aggressive risk-reduction therapies if needed, including cholesterol-lowering drugs, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors, aspirin, diuretics and anticoagulants while in the hospital. Before discharge, they also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, including lifestyle modifications and follow-up care. Hospitals must adhere to these measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards. According to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, stroke is one of the leading causes of death and serious, long-term disability in the United States. On average, someone suffers a stroke every 40 seconds; someone dies of a stroke every four minutes; and 795,000 people suffer a new or recurrent stroke each year. Also, about 5.7 million people suffer from heart failure. Statistics also show that, each year, 670,000 new cases are diagnosed and more than 277,000 people will die of heart failure. However, many heart failure patients can lead a full, enjoyable life when their condition is managed with proper medications and devices and with healthy lifestyle changes.